POACHERS

09.04.12

Elephants Killed in Record Numbers

Tony Karumba, AFP / Getty Images

African elephants are being killed in record numbers, and activists fear that members of the military may be involved in the unprecedented slaughter. Twenty-two elephants were killed in a single raid on a savanna in Garamba National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo—a spate of illegal killings that park guards say they now have reason to suspect was perpetrated by members of the Ugandan military hunting from a helicopter. “They even shot the babies,” said chief ranger Paul Onyango. Tens of thousands of elephants are being killed every year in Africa, conservationists say, as poachers kill them for nothing other than their tusks.